Wiardgroup

> Hi All,
>
> [...8<...]
>
> In contrast, the reality of this fascination is composed of delight
> and rueful morbidity in nearly equal parts. For instance, my
> perception is that close contact among users has fostered the growth
> of 'tribes'; cults of personality formed around design concepts of the
> gadgets  from which the nature of the designers is extrapolated (with
> a predictably-high degree of  inaccuracy, I think)
> While anthropology/sociology 101 students will give this
> observation the big yawn (wellll… duh!) I'm nonetheless interested
> because in the 1970's I did not experience anything approaching the
> level of 'tribalism' in the user bases. Sure, there were Moog
> partisans and Arp fans (and about a dozen professors who had actually
> seen a Buchla) but I didn't see the level of fractiousness that you
> can read in an afternoon of browsing the analog lists today. People
> weren't rallying around Dr. Bob or Al Pearlman or Don Buchla and we
> definitely didn't see them addressing one another directly.
> Mind you I'm not complaining, or  waxing nostalgic. I kinda think that
> THIS is the golden age of analog but I'm theorizing (with apologies to
> Dr. MacLuhan) that the media (i.e. the internet groups) ARE the
> message .
> Whadda you folks think?

I think there is a significant amount of mixing of an individual's
identity with what they have/bought/use/do.

It also seems that the goal of making music with these great machines
has taken a secondary role. Instead, machine's qualities and the
individual's knowledge of its history and creator have become
primary when seeking acceptance by an established tribe.  Back
when the first synths were introduced it was about what you could
create with them.

Choice is wonderful, and having access to philosophies embodied in a
variety of systems is very fertile ground for creative thinking.
But unfortunately it seems there is less discussion about real
philosophical differences in the systems for making music and more
about mm in the front panels.  Even less about the creative use of
these systems.  Engineering knowledge (and its meaning) has been
intermingled with music and manufacturing metaphors, the left
brain dominating over the right.

Lastly, in an age of disintermediation (there seems to be a machine
in between most anything we want to do), belonging to a group and
defending your colors is akin to fighting for your own kind.
Whatever gadget we use automatically makes us a part of something.
So we meet in virtuality where a virtual personality can be created and
destroyed in milliseconds.  And we can say whatever we want, since
freedom sans responsibility is easy to get this day and age.



Regards,

Bill
______________________________________________________________________
 Bill Sequeira, Ph.D.
 Principal, Axon Hillock